Over the recent past, the market has witnessed a profound consumer interest in recreational bicycles. This interest has been described as stemming from a broad variety of reasons, the most often cited one concerning a rapidly growing interest on the part of the public in the health related aspects of the physical exercise available to a bicycle operator. The consequence of this popularity of bicycle riding has been a growing presence of bicycle operators or cyclists, of all ages, on public highways. Further, as the recreation has grown, typical bicycle excursions or trips have lengthened in extent and, concomitantly a great variety of lighter, multi-geared and faster bicycles have entered the marketplace. Increasingly, bicycle trips are made after typical working hours and for extended distances, to the extent that riders now are frequently encountered on the highways at dusk and into nightfall. The highway safety aspects involved with such practices are apparent and the necessity for providing a visually perceptible awareness of the cyclist on the part of motorists has assumed considerable importance.
Heretofore, lighting systems for bicycles have been designed more under ornamental considerations than under criteria meeting the actual operational needs of the cyclist. At the present, the cyclist requires a headlamp which provides adequate forward sight distance while remaining lightweight and rugged, as well as a tail light of the same physical properties and which is readily perceptible by approaching motorists. These features, however, are not in and of themselves fully adequate as safety components. For example, the cyclist often will encounter unavoidable automobile-bicycle highway conditions of particularly higher hazard levels during which period the perceptibility and identification of the bicycle and rider should be significantly enhanced or buttressed. Further, some form of adequately perceptible turn indication should be provided for the cyclist such that no confusion can remain on the part of approaching motorists as to the intention of the cyclist to turn or execute maneuvers lateral to road direction.
The accommodation of all of the above requirements or desiterata normally has required battery power supplies for illumination devices of weight and bulk characteristics not in keeping with the light weight design attributes of modern bicycle structures. Where these power supplies are lessened in capacity to save weight and bulk, the power demands asserted upon them lessen their life spans to the point of impracticality. Bicycle driven generators are used, but must be driven by the operator, thus requiring exertion not particularly appreciated. Further, generators are motion and speed dependent, thus rendering such warning systems inoperative or ineffective during low speed, stopping or other operational conditions which are considered hazardous.
Another consideration necessarily injecting itself concerns the unfortunate prevalence of thievery of valuable accessories from bicycles while they remain locked but unattended. More valuable, sophisticated equipment mounted upon a bicycle cannot be left unattended. The removal of such equipment for short periods wherein the bicycle is locked but unattended represents an operational inconvenience of magnitude rendering the use or purchase of more expensive but quality equipment somewhat impractical.